Kicking off SEMA 08 with a bang, staying at the 6mo NEW Palazzo.

 Thanks to Matt from Yokohama for hookin’ it up. It ain’t as bad when your tired from SEMA to walk into a welcoming lobby such as this.

SEMA 08 wasn’t as busy as previous years…. wonder where our FD/FIA driver Carl is…. Oh there he is!

Looks like he found a friend (Charlie from JustDrift.com)           Here we are trying to get some Hankook support for our cause in 2009. Thanks to Hankook for their help all year, looking forward to working with them in 2009!

Formula Drift press conference.. schedule was posted and so was the Red Bull Drifting World Championship layout… good luck to all at ProAM Nationals this year as well!

www.formuladrift.com     www.driftday.com

These guys are going to be good buddies Yoshioka and Carl… also spotted – Mike Bolanos (Federal Driver) and Charlie from Just Drift. Maxin at the Scion Party.. Open Bar is so dangerous! 

Inside SEMA.. there were a lot of great things happening if you were looking. Introducing the Hankook C91 Soft compound (ridiculous fast) and the NEW Hankook RS3!!! (flames not included :])

http://www.hankooktireusa.com/

Lots of nice GTR’s this year.. this one had 20’s and race… OMG R comps in 20″! Toyo answered a lot of prayers this year coming with the R888 in 19″ and now they bring the heat with 20″ R-Comps.. Glad to see they understand where the market is heading. GTR’s will be flying in 2009 on these incredible R-Comp tires!

Toyo’s for Skyline GTR’s are coming in 285/35R20 (Front) and a very nasty… 315/30R20 (REAR)

http://www.toyo.com/

The Maxxis MA Z1 (regular) is an very good drift tire for intermediate-advanced drivers. While we were there we had an interesting talk to try and make this more affordable to some drifters out there through a program. Thanks to Brandon and John from Maxxis for their time.. stay tuned for that.

http://www.maxxis.com/ 

And of course Chris Forsburg’s running the Maxxis MA-Z1 Drift tire. The tire is great for drifting and check out the steering angle on his 350Z.

Yokohama is really vamped up in their lineup for 2009. It’s not like they weren’t already. A048 is a tire not many can afford to race on, but the ones that do are very satisfied.

And of course, long time favorites in their classes are the Advan Sport and the Advan Neova AD07, the king of street class tires for many years.

Oh boy… what is this?!?! A new Neova?!?!? Get outta here! Introducing the Advan Neova AD08. Speaking to Yokohama, this tire got better in dry, and 2fold better in wet! Pricing when released will be reasonable as well! Street class people… if you’re not running this, you’re not out to win.

Not only is there a new Neova, but they are expanding on US sizes. 19″ for all the Porsche guys! Now many PCA guys can move up from a Advan Sport to a Advan Neova AD08… prayers have been answered!

http://www.yokohamatire.com/

Will Sam Hubinette finally be driving this car for 2009? I hope so, because he stole someone’s rollerblades to put on his rear bumper/quarter panel. I wonder if that works.

The Hunter Auto34 with wheel lift pretty much changes tires on their own. How lazy can we get?!? Great to reduce physical stress over the long run, but when we are doing events where we have to change 250 tires a weekend, the Auto34 doesn’t work for us then. We love our TC3500, but seriously nice hardware here.

http://www.hunter.com/

Bridgestone vs Michelin… who cares… Rays center lug wheels are just sexy!

The new TE37 G2 are on display at Mackin Industries, the main distributor of Rays in the United States. And here’s the set of TE37 G2’s that we mounted the previous Fri.

This Bimmer is 2face! The other side was running Flat Black. Also mounted by City Tire. 🙂

Not the same Bimmer as previously posted, this one is a beast! Too much Power up in that hood. Advan display was right next to it. $15,000 display just to impress our eyes at SEMA ’08. What a great lineup.

http://www.mackinindustries.com/

Sema 2008 was great. It wasn’t as crowded as previous years, but I think that’s better. City Tire was able to get a lot done as far as getting new contacts and helping our current contacts. Even though the economy is down and many companies are currently suffering financial hardship, I’m really impressed at the fact that there are companies out there that will still set aside a budget to make sure they have something to display for their loyal retailers, distributors, and customers. It keeps them in our minds. We are doing our best to survive these times. I think that sums up this year’s SEMA the best, to survive and help each other out in 2009 the best that we can. Thank you SEMA 08, its vendors, and all the participants for making it a successful one.

-John